Four days after Pope Francis announced that he would canonize Blessed Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 4, Cardinal Wuerl celebrated Mass for the Missionaries of Charity at the Gift of Peace convent in Washington and praised them for continuing Mother Teresa’s work.

“We as the Church universal have been giving thanks to God for this wonderful person who did in her works what she said in her words, to do small things with great love,” Cardinal Wuerl said in his homily at the March 19 Mass in the convent’s chapel, where the Missionaries of Charity where joined by the home’s elderly and sick residents, and by volunteers and friends. Blessed Teresa offered a sign to the world “of God’s grace at work,” the cardinal said, adding that the Missionaries of Charity at the Gift of Peace convent and around the world “continue this wonderful work.”

The Missionaries of Charity, wearing their distinctive white sari-styled habits with blue trim, had removed their sandals before entering the chapel, and most of the barefoot sisters knelt and sat humbly on the floor near the altar of the small chapel, while the pews were filled with the residents whom they care for and some volunteers, including students from Marymount University in Arlington who help them.

Cardinal Wuerl said he had met and prayed with Mother Teresa, and still has a small Miraculous Medal that she had given him. The Mass was celebrated on the feast day of St. Joseph, who is the patron saint of the Missionaries of Charity’s tertians – the women preparing to make their final professions. The cardinal noted that he had recently visited India, and he joked that his hosts gave him a “special exemption” from taking his shoes off as they had done.

During his homily, the cardinal noted how when Pope Francis visited Washington and met with Catholic Charities clients, volunteers and staff at St. Patrick Church, the pontiff “lifted up St. Joseph as a reminder of our commitment to serve the Lord, and see in others the face of Jesus.”

The cardinal added, “Isn’t that what you do every day? Isn’t that what the Missionaries of Charity do? You see in all people here, in all the residents, and you see in one another, the face of Jesus.”

Cardinal Wuerl noted how St. Joseph took special care of Mary and Jesus, “taking them into his home and heart, caring for them, protecting them and providing for them… There was no other person aside from Mary who was closer to Jesus. We continue to try to mirror that closeness to Jesus.”

The cardinal’s chair beside the altar was near a statue of St. Joseph tenderly holding baby Jesus in his arms, with a portrait of a smiling Mother Teresa on the nearby wall.

Quoting some of Pope Francis’s remarks during his Catholic Charities meeting, Cardinal Wuerl said, “Jesus keeps knocking on our doors, the doors of our lives… Jesus keeps knocking on our door in the faces of our brothers and sisters, in the faces of our neighbors and those around us.”

The cardinal concluded his homily by thanking the Missionaries of Charity for manifesting Blessed Teresa’s presence in the world today, as her spiritual daughters bringing Jesus’s love to those in need.

After Communion, Cardinal Wuerl offered a special message to the home’s residents, saying, “This is your home, where you also make Christ present. Every one of us has the responsibility of mirroring him in how we treat each other… of making the love of God present wherever we are.”

Then when the Mass was over, the cardinal personally greeted the residents and volunteers gathered in the lounge, and the sisters smiled as they presented him with a lei of silk flowers that they placed around his neck, and they serenaded him with songs as some played drums and tambourines.

Later, Sister Tanya, the superior for the Missionaries of Charity at the Gift of Peace convent, said the 48 sisters there were thrilled at that week’s news about their order’s foundress. “It was the greatest joy we could have, to hear that Mother is being canonized,” she said.

The sisters at the Gift of Peace Convent along with their volunteers care for 48 residents, including eight AIDS patients, along with homeless people, the elderly, sick and mentally challenged. Mother Teresa established the convent in 1986 to care for people dying of AIDS. The Missionaries of Charity also have a convent of contemplative nuns and operate a home for unwed mothers in Washington.

“The work continues, to see Jesus in the face of the poorest of the poor,” said Sister Tanya, who added, “the greatest blessing is to bring Jesus into the lives of the people.”

Sister Tanya said families should pray together and share their love for God with each other, and like all Catholics, see the face of Jesus in others. “Mother said Calcutta is everywhere… Anyone can be lonely, unloved and unwanted,” she said.